Committee on elimination of discrimination against women holds informal meeting with non-governmental organizations

Committee on Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women
18 January 2010

Hears from NGOs on Uzbekistan, Ukraine
and Malawi

The Committee on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women this afternoon held an informal meeting
with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Uzbekistan,
Ukraine, and Malawi. According to its Rules of Procedure, the Committee
may invite representatives of NGOs to make oral or written statements,
and to provide information or documentation relevant to the Committee's
activities under the Convention. The Committee has also decided that representatives
of national and international NGOs should provide country-specific information
on the States parties whose reports were before the Committee.

Among issues raised on Malawi, NGOs said
there were many laws which were contrary to the nature and spirit of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
in Malawi, and it could be safely said that it did not form part and parcel
of the laws. There was also a lack of commitment by the State to implement
the Committee's concluding comment urging it to set a clear time frame
for the adoption of the revised Citizenship Act, Immigration Act, and the
Wills and Inheritance Act, as well as the new Marriage, Divorce and Family
Relations Bill, designed to eliminate discrimination against women, and
the proposed HIV/AIDS Bill contained provisions that perpetuated the victimisation
and stigmatisation of women, and the infringement of their rights.

On Ukraine, NGOs said despite the existence
of the national gender machinery, the overall strategy of gender policies
was not clear and precise. The State Programme on Gender did not define
any indicators for monitoring and measuring its effectiveness. With regards
to the situation of homosexual, bisexual and transgender women, national
legislation contained several mentions of prohibition of discrimination
against women, but there was no mention of discrimination on the grounds
of sexual orientation and/or gender identity in any of these documents.
Further, Romani women faced serious problems due to multiple discrimination
on the basis of gender and ethnicity within wider society as well as within
domestic and family environments.

With regards to Uzbekistan, NGOs said
women in Uzbekistan were denied a voice and safe space to raise their concerns.
There was State control and fear, and women could not participate equally
in the economic, social and public life in Uzbekistan for a range of reasons.
The perspective of the Government on women continued to be focused on values
that assumed that women did not have capacities for leadership or even
equal participation. The Committee should ensure that the Government put
in place anti-discrimination legislation which would provide for women's
access to equal opportunities and equal benefit in employment and economic
rights, and to ensure that women were not discriminated against on the
grounds of their sexual identity. The Uzbek State must commit to ensure
the freedom of women human rights defenders to undertake their work in
organising and supporting women.

The next meeting of the Committee will
be at 3 p.m. on Tuesday 19 January, when it will hold another informal
meeting with non-governmental organizations to discuss their interactions
with the Committee.

Statements

Malawi

SEODI VENEKAI-RUDO WHITE, Women and Law
in Southern Africa Research Trust, said she was presenting the Malawi Shadow
Report on behalf of Women and Law in Southern Africa and the Malawi NGO
Gender Coordinating Network. There were many laws which were contrary to
the nature and spirit of the Convention in Malawi, and it could be safely
said that it did not form part and parcel of the laws. It was therefore
recommended that the Government clearly create an action plan on the domestication
of the Convention, or Malawian women and girls could not legitimately enjoy
the rights under the Convention. There was also a lack of commitment by
the State to implement the Committee's concluding comment urging it to
set a clear time frame for the adoption of the revised Citizenship Act,
Immigration Act, and the Wills and Inheritance Act, as well as the new
Marriage, Divorce and Family Relations Bill, designed to eliminate discrimination
against women. Further, in Malawi, women's status as owners of property
remained comparatively poorer than that of men because of inequitable construction
of gender roles. Marriage became a conduit of poverty for women.

MARY FRANCES MALUNGA, National Assembly
of Business Women, said Malawi's maternal mortality rates continued to
be one of the highest in the world. So far, Malawi had failed to meet the
Committee's concluding observations calling for the State party to integrate
a gender perspective in all health sector reforms while also ensuring that
women's sexual and reproductive health needs were adequately addressed.
Further, the proposed HIV/AIDS Bill contained provisions that perpetuated
the victimisation and stigmatisation of women, and the infringement of
their rights.

Ukraine

MARIIA ALIEKSIEIENKO, Women's Consortium
of Ukraine, said despite the existence of the national gender machinery,
the overall strategy of gender policies was not clear and precise. The
State Programme on Gender did not define any indicators for monitoring
and measuring its effectiveness. The Government funds for gender equality
programmes were very limited and were not effectively allocated. The representation
of women in Parliament, in the top positions of executive branches and
in diplomatic departments and international delegations remained very low.
Whereas State-based crisis centres and shelters for victims of domestic
violence had been established, several gaps and challenges remained, including
that they were not available in all regions, the services were not available
on short notice, and the good practices of the previous State social centres
were not sufficiently supported by the State. As for the victims of trafficking,
the social and psychological support to them was mostly provided by the
NGOs with assistance from international donors.

KRYSTYNA POSUNKINA, Za Ravnie Prava (For
Equal Rights), said with regards to the situation of homosexual, bisexual
and transgender women, national legislation contained several mentions
of prohibition of discrimination against women, but there was no mention
of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and/or gender identity
in any of these documents, and there was an issue of frequent violation
of freedoms and rights of these women. When a crime against these women
occurred and was aggravated by sexual orientation or gender identity, there
was no possibility to interpret it as a hate crime due to the lack of legislation.
Fertile lesbian women had no right to artificial insemination, and transgender
health issues were recognised only as an identity disorder.

ZEMFIRA KONDUR, European Roma Rights
Center, said Romani women faced serious problems due to multiple discrimination
on the basis of gender and ethnicity within wider society as well as within
domestic and family environments, with many Romani women and girls facing
hunger, discrimination in access to education, health care, employment,
issues of domestic and racial violence, inadequate housing, and the disadvantaged
position of Romani women. The human rights situation of these women was
aggravated by the fact that there was no comprehensive anti-discrimination
law in Ukraine via which Romani women could seek to defend their rights
and challenge abuses when these occurred. The Government should promptly
adopt a comprehensive strategy on the Roma, with specific focus on gender
as a cross-cutting priority.

Uzbekistan

YASMIN MASIDI, Coalition of Uzbek Women's
Rights NGOs, said women in Uzbekistan were denied a voice and safe space
to raise their concerns. There was State control and fear, and women could
not participate equally in the economic, social and public life in Uzbekistan
for a range of reasons. Recent developments in legislation had seriously
hampered women's participation in the NGO movement. Human rights defenders
who had come together for their work faced grave danger, as unregistered
collectives or groups were considered illegal. The perspective of the Government
on women continued to be focused on values that assumed that women did
not have capacities for leadership or even equal participation. Programmes
in place for women's development were based on stereotypes and patriarchal
norms that they further reinforced. Protection from domestic violence,
non-discrimination, gender equality and other critical issues which could
only be addressed by challenging established patriarchal norms were taboo
in official vocabulary. The attention of the Committee was also urgently
drawn to the new programme of population control measures launched by the
State that targeted women's reproductive rights.

ANNA KIREY, LGBT Organisation "Labrys",
said due to their sexual identity, women in Uzbekistan were unable to secure
employment, were disowned and harassed by their families, and forced into
marriage. Lesbian and bisexual women were forced to marry men because of
tremendous family pressure. The fear of persecution by the State had kept
the lesbian women's movement underground, disabling them from challenging
the discrimination that they suffered. Criminal laws provided punitive
measures for homosexuality, and could also be used against transgender
women. The Committee should ensure that the Government put in place anti-discrimination
legislation which would provide for women's access to equal opportunities
and equal benefit in employment and economic rights, and to ensure that
women were not discriminated against on the grounds of their sexual identity.
The Uzbek State must commit to ensure the freedom of women human rights
defenders to undertake their work in organizing and supporting women.

Questions

Following these statements, Committee
Members raised a number of questions and issues, including, on Malawi:
what plans did NGOs have to try and ensure that the gender laws were actually
given priority in Parliament; what were the implications of the Madonna
case of 2009 which had implications for the Convention and its status within
the domestic legal order and how strict had the Supreme Court been; a request
for more information on the Constitution and what it contained with respect
to international treaties ratified; and whether there was a real marital
shared property regime, and if so, what rights of inheritance did women
have.

On Ukraine, Members raised, among other
issues: whether there had been any real progress, other than political
will, in eradicating trafficking in persons; whether gender equality was
a matter for public debate and something that had been addressed by political
candidates; what could be done to improve the situation of sexual minorities;
a request for more information on the work of NGOs on possible use of the
Optional Protocol in their work; and how many crisis centres and shelters
had been opened by the Government for victims of domestic violence.

On Uzbekistan, Members raised, among
other matters: a request for more information on the work on the sterilisation
programme, which NGOs were alleging were in some cases forced; whether
there was a prohibition of marital rape, since there was no terminology
for this phenomenon; a request for documentation on sexual harassment cases
where the victims were State employees; which laws could be used to discriminate
against those with trans-gender identity; and whether forced marriage was
a generalised phenomenon against women and not just against those with
a different gender identity and sexual orientation.

Responses

Responding to these questions and issues,
representatives from Malawian NGOs said the Executive Branch of Government
advanced Bills to Parliament after having discussed them in Cabinet - it
was only after this that they became debatable. Thus the Parliament told
NGOs that they had to engage with the Executive. In matters of gender laws,
it should be the gender machinery that engaged with the Executive and the
Justice machinery. On the implications of the Madonna case, the Supreme
Court said in this regard that the first point of departure in interpreting
an Act of Parliament was the Constitution. The Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the
Child were thus not used as part of the laws of Malawi, although they could
be used as per the discretion of the courts. There should be a clear road
map by the gender machinery in terms of what laws stayed in and what laws
were removed. On property rights, there was no regime of marital property,
and laws assumed either registration of a joint title to a particular property,
or it was assumed to be owned separately.

Representatives of NGOs from Ukraine,
responding, said on the political position of women in Ukraine, the law
of Ukraine on ensuring equal rights and opportunities declared that both
sexes had equal rights and opportunities in the political world, but this
was de jure- de facto, the reality was different and women were still discriminated
against in the political field for a wide range of reasons, including stereotypes
and bad distribution of family roles. There were only about 8 per cent
of women in Parliament. Without the NGOs in Ukraine, issues of gender equality,
domestic violence and trafficking would never have been addressed. These
activities started mostly in 1994, and the women's movement had been developing
and strengthening ever since. The Government relied on NGOs for advisory
assistance, training, and public awareness campaigns. NGOs had worked with
judges and the courts as well as lawyers in order to make them more aware
of gender-equality issues. On the Shadow Report procedure, it was an initiative
only from NGOs. There were some organizations involved in the elaboration
of the State report, but very few, and they were mostly invited once the
report had been prepared. NGOs for ethnic minorities, women with disabilities,
and sexual minority women were not invited nor involved. There was no State
shelter that provided support to victims of trafficking - there were some
rare cases where support was given to NGO shelters, but it wasn't actually
in the system. Prospects for Governmental ownership of these services,
now supported by international organizations, was pretty limited. It was
very difficult to make a distinction between ethnic and gender discrimination
in the case of Romani women. The protection against racial discrimination
under Ukrainian law was very weak, making Romani women very vulnerable
to discrimination.

Uzbekistan NGO representatives, responding,
said detailed responses would be provided in writing in twenty-four hours,
as the representatives themselves could not be present at the meeting for
fear of persecution. The situation of LGBT women was rare and not very
documented in the Central Asian countries, and it was impressive that a
report had been able to be produced and presented at the session. Uzbekistan
had frequently been called upon to decriminalise homosexuality, but it
had rejected this recently at the Universal Periodic Review. It was impossible
to change gender on official documents for transsexual persons. There was
great limitation of access for women and for lesbian, gay and bisexual
women in Uzbekistan due to Government surveillance of the Internet and
telephone.